Chapter Thirteen
“Dan said no more autopsies,” Travis protested, but really wanting to cut open the body that Cliff and Drew had dragged in.
“Dan’s not here, man,” Drew said. “Besides, you’ll wanna see this.”
He rolled the body over, revealing the strangely withered face. Travis stood up straight, shocked at the man’s appearance. “Whoah, man,” he said. “What the shit?”
“Oh no,” Grace said, approaching the body with her eyes wide.
“What?” Cliff asked.
Grace shook her head, a look of fear spreading across her face. “I—I’ve seen this before.”
“Explain,” Max said. Jake stood silent, his eyes locked on the man’s face.
“At the lab,” she began. “Some strains of bacteria were mixed with the pathogen to try to find a cure. For some reason, the doctors thought that flesh-eating bacteria would do the trick. Dead samples, I mean, like a vaccine.”
“What the hell are you saying?” Travis demanded, his eyes wide with shock.
“They accidentally created a super strain of the bacteria. The pathogen altered it to the point of withering the flesh, but making the patients stronger on the inside.”
“You created this?” Max asked.
“No, not me,” Grace said, backing away. “It was them. They did this. They did this on purpose. I wasn’t part of the experiments. I swear. I wanted to find a cure.”
“Who’s them?” Drew asked.
“The powers that be, I guess. The men in the black uniforms.”
Drew’s eyes went wide, and he glanced at Jake. Jake returned his stare.
“Gephardt?” they said in unison.
“Yeah,” Grace said, nodding. “That’s what they were called. They wanted to use it as a bioweapon to kill off the rebels. Us.”
“Jesus goddamn Christ,” Travis gasped, folding his arms across his chest. “How is it spread?”
“I don’t know,” Grace said. “All I know is that these victims were released to spread it. They were promised immortality, and they got it; for a price.”
“So, are we infected then?” Cliff asked.
“No. I know it can’t spread unless there’s some exchange of bodily fluids. But I’m not sure about the details; blood, saliva, or something else.”
“Well, good,” Drew said. “Let’s take this fucker’s bodily fluids and set them on fire.”
“Be careful,” Grace said. “Try not to get any blood on you.”
As Cliff and Drew hefted the body and headed toward the door, Max gasped out loud. He had returned to the monitors and was watching intently.
“Guys,” he said. “Something’s happening over there.”
Everyone gathered around to see. Off in the distance, in the direction Dan and the others had gone, the small heat signature they had seen earlier was growing larger; almost to the point of becoming a sun-like object in the infrared.
“Damn,” Cliff said. “Maybe we should go help. If that was a fireplace, then it’s on fire now. They could be in trouble.”
“I guess you’re probably in charge since Dan is gone,” Drew said. “What the fuck should we do?”
“Jake,” Cliff said. “Grab that rocket launcher and let’s get out there. I have a feeling they’re in deep shit. Drew, strap up again and grab some more ammo. I’ll drag this nasty fucker outside.”
“I can’t see shit,” Eric cursed, covering his face as they trudged through the snow.
The four of them headed toward their goal, walking against the wind with more effort than any of them could really spare. Dan thought he smelled smoke, which would confirm his idea that there was a cabin up ahead, but the smell was becoming unusually strong.
He looked back at the Jeep. They had only come about fifty yards since exiting, and their goal was at least a half mile away. He turned back to their trail just as Toni stopped.
“Look,” she said, pointing off toward the supposed cabin.
Dan’s eyes widened. There was not only a heat column now, but a visible glow indicating a large fire.
“Jesus Christ,” he said, lowering his rifle. He raised it back again, seeing not only the large glow, but at least a hundred smaller glows. They were moving toward them…
“What the fuck?” he said. “Those spots I saw earlier are moving toward us.”
“What are they?” Gena asked. “People?”
“Hundreds of them? I doubt it? It’s too fucking cold for anyone to be out wandering around.”
Toni put her hand on his shoulder, her eyes wide with horror. “Unless they’re dead.”
Dan remembered what Travis had said about the deadheads. They were animated, for sure, but still dead. The only difference was that part of their brain was still active. Active enough to give off heat—at least a little.
“Why would there be that many dead people out here in the middle of nowhere?” Gena asked.
“There was a campground nearby,” Eric said. “I don’t remember where, but it would have been a good place for people to gather together for… prayer, or something.”
“Damn it,” Dan cursed, shouldering his rifle and drawing his machete. “Save your bullets. We don’t have that many.”
As they continued forward, the faint, amber glow of the sky revealed moving shapes ahead. They stumbled forward, heading straight for the group on wobbly and rotting legs. When the first one came into view, they readied their weapons.
“In the head,” Toni shouted over the wind. “It’s the only thing that kills them.”
Dan dodged his attacker, ducking to the side and slashing backhanded. His machete sliced off the top of the creature’s head and it fell forward into the snow. More of them came, and Dan dashed from one to the other, chopping skull after skull. The others made progress, keeping up the pace. Even Eric fought like a beast, growling with each kill.
The dead came on, hording the area in front of them, their rotten faces twisted into rictus grins and angry masks. Dan was undaunted, though, and charged forward, hacking and slashing his way through. He had only Toby on his mind, and something told him that the boy was up there somewhere, in danger of becoming a corpse himself.
Everything became a blur. Dan’s heartbeat overpowered the howling of the wind. He could hear nothing but the heavy
thump, thump, thump
, and it drove him forward like a madman. He dropped the dead one by one, hissing with fury as every skull was split, and every drop of blood was sprayed into the air around him. It was a red fury, and Dan felt more alive than ever before.
Then, something else came out of the shadows. A tall, pale form stepped forward, it’s gleaming fluorescent eyes burning right through him, and the four swirling tentacles jabbing the ground around it. Everywhere the tentacles broke through, another corpse would rise from the dead.
His mind went back to his imprisonment. To the days and weeks that he was locked in a demented and mutated killer’s basement. The horrifying creature that taunted him then now stood before him once again. He froze, nearly dropping his machete as his eyes locked onto that demonic face.
“Dan,” the monster growled over the wind. “I knew it was you.”
The others gathered around him, keeping the dead away as the creature bellowed with laughter.
“And you’ve brought friends,” Robert continued. “How nice. I’ve brought friends, too.”
“Holy shit,” Toni said. “Is that who I think it is?”
“That’s the one,” Dan replied.
The dead had stopped their charge, and now stood nearby, swaying in place, waiting for their chance to feed. But the creature kept them at bay as it stalked forward. He was taller than Dan remembered, but still the same demon that tortured him over and over again. This time, he was not afraid. He was angry; furious.
He unshouldered his Blackout, flicked off the safety, and raised it to his shoulder. “Fuck you,” he said.
He fired, catching the demon square in the chest. But the round was harmless, and bounced off like a rock. The dead immediately charged as the creature released them, and Dan and his friends resumed their attack. Toni drew her revolvers and fired several shots at Robert. But he laughed, swinging his tentacles toward her, their barbed tips bearing down on her. She dodged, and Dan quickly drew his machete, chopping at the nearest one.
The barb came off easily, falling into the snow, gushing bloody ichor as Robert howled in rage. Dan spun and slashed at another deadhead, decapitating it, then ran forward to chop at another. Robert leaped into the air, landing behind them with an explosion of snow, and charged. A shotgun blast from Dan’s right stopped Robert in his tracks, and Toni’s revolvers followed. Gena kept her focus on the dead, chopping and slashing at them as they crowded them all together.
“Out of the way!” Robert growled, sweeping the dead to the side like ragdolls.
He charged again, and the group split up. Robert’s claws swiped at the empty air, and Dan spun again, slashing with his machete. He severed another tentacle, enraging the demonic beast even more. The dead were beginning to rise again, and Dan backed away, poising his rifle to make short work of them.
He fired again and again, dropping the dead one by one. Eric blasted them at head level, exploding heads a few at a time. Dan glared at Robert, whose attention seemed to be focused on him. Maybe if he could lure the thing away, the others could focus on the dead.
It was a bad idea, but he was gonna do it.
Dan bolted into the woods to their south, trying to stick close to the road. Robert bellowed with laughter and followed, striding calmly through the deep snow, his teeth gleaming in the amber glow.
“Come on, fucker,” Dan whispered. “Keep it coming.”
He rounded a tree and rested against the trunk, listening for the approaching creature. Though the wind still howled and groaned, he could distinctly hear the crunching footfalls, and the maniacal laughter that followed.
“Come back, Dan,” Robert called out. “Don’t leave before the party’s over! Maybe I should just go back and kill your friends.”
Damn it!
Dan popped out and fired a round, striking Robert’s chest once again. The creature laughed it off, whipping its remaining tentacles toward him. Dan ducked and leaped over to the next tree, barely escaping the barbed tips. He could hardly breathe, but he had to keep it up until he could figure out a way to kill the monster.
Desperate, he ran to the right, keeping to the trees as he headed back toward the road. Robert followed close behind, laughing like a demon and striking down saplings as he passed. The sound of magnum rounds echoed from behind him, and Robert growled in pain.
Dan turned, raising his rifle, knowing that Toni had joined the fight. The scope revealed Robert’s giant form heading away from him, marching toward Toni’s scrambling form. He centered Robert’s head in the crosshairs, gritting his teeth, and pulled the trigger. The creature was jolted and stumbled to the side, its claws grasping the back of its head as it struggled to maintain its balance.
Dan ran back toward it, waving Toni out of the way. Behind her, a few of the dead began approaching, growling and moaning as they closed in. Dan took them down with headshots, cursing as his last trigger pull revealed that his magazine was empty.
He pressed the magazine release, fumbling around in his pockets for another. Robert turned to him, his face scowling with rage, and leaped through the air. Dan dodged, running forward and tripping over a buried log. Toni pulled him to his feet roughly.
“Get up!”
she shouted.
“I’m out,”
Dan said.
“I must have dropped the rest.”
As Robert charged them, Toni emptied her revolvers into his gut. Though he cursed and thrashed, the rounds did little. A shotgun blast from the side knocked the creature off its feet, though, and Dan turned to see Eric loading more shells, and Gena raising her SCAR to let loose on full auto.
The creature was driven back as Gena marched forward firing bursts. Eric blasted it again and again, until he finally fell back, kneeling to protect itself from damage. Then, Robert suddenly leaped into the air, soaring over the group and landing behind them. They turned, but Dan ran forward with his machete, motioning for them to stay back.
“This is between me and you,” Dan said to the creature. “Leave my friends out of this.”
Robert chuckled as he slowly stood, his tentacles swirling about him, his fangs bared in a demonic grin.
“You have no idea the power I wield, Dan,” Robert said. “It could be yours, if only you would join me.”
“Toni,” he said. “Find Toby. I’ll deal with this thing.”
“No fucking way,” she said, loading more bullets into her revolvers.
Gena loaded up another mag, and Eric stepped up and cocked his shotgun. Dan sighed.
Then, just as the creature was about to charge, the sound of honking and the erratic bouncing of headlights appeared behind them. They leaped out of the way just as a pickup bounded over a snow drift and slid to a spinning stop. Jake stood up from inside the bed, raising a rocket launcher to his shoulder.
The world slowed down to a crawl. Dan turned back to Robert. The creature’s glossy black eyes widened, and he crouched to leap into the air. But the burst of the rocket sounded, and the group dropped to the ground as the missile
wooshed
over them. Dan didn’t see the impact, but he felt the concussion when the rocket hit its target.